Mawite Legend
Mawite War Skiff
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To represent the evolving tactics of the Brotherhood and make battles with them more varied and interesting
- Image Source:
- Top Image: "Does This Thing Still Work?", by Ian McQue
- Second Image: "Gunboats", by Ian McQue
- Third Image: "Gondola", by Ian McQue
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: Skiff
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
- Manufacturer: Brotherhood of the Maw
- Affiliation: Brotherhood of the Maw
- Market Status: Closed-Market
- Model: Mawite War Skiff
- Modularity: Yes
- The weapon system is designed to be modified on the go
- By carrying fewer ammo types, the skiff can free up some cargo space
- Additional armor plating can be added at the cost of speed
- Removing the deck guns allows for additional passengers
- Production: Mass-Produced
- Material:
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
- Classification: Landspeeder
- Role: Heavy Support
- Size: Large
- Weight: Very Heavy
- Armaments: Very High
- One Chiss MetaCannon (main gun)
- Two E-WEB Missile Launchers (deck guns)
- Two E-WEB Heavy Repeating Blasters (deck guns)
- Defenses: Average
- Duranium armor plating
- Flare launchers for missile defense
- Smoke launchers to obscure position
- Anti-boarding spikes
- Maneuverability Rating: High
- Speed Rating: High
- Propulsion: Repulsorlift
- Minimum Crew: Two
- One Pilot
- One Navigator
- Optimal Crew: Twelve
- One Pilot
- One Navigator
- One Spotter
- Two Main Loaders
- One Main Gunner
- Two Deck Loaders
- Four Deck Gunners
- Passenger Capacity: Eight
- With deck guns removed and minimum crew, thirty
- Cargo Capacity: None
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Armed with a powerful MetaCannon
- Well-armored but unshielded
- Flare launchers for missile defense
- Smoke launchers to create cover when stationary
- Powerful sensor array assists in main cannon targeting
STRENGTHS
- That's One Big Gun: Each War Skiff boasts a Chiss MetaCannon as its main gun. The MetaCannon is highly modular, and can fire armor-piercing shells, blaster bolts, charric maser beams, and even incendiary or biological shells. This allows the vehicle great tactical flexibility, as it can be outfitted for to be effective against infantry or armored vehicles, and at close or medium range.
- Rapid Response Deployment: War Skiffs pour all non-weapon power into their engines. Coupled with their agrinium frames, this makes them surprisingly swift for their size and weight. They move quickly over the battlefield, their repulsorlifts allowing them to navigate virtually any kind of terrain. They are assisted in this by a navigator, who identifies routes and potential hazards for the pilot.
- Uncanny Dodge: War Skiffs rely on speed and maneuverability more than their armor to survive. They have a relatively narrow profile, and their high speed - coupled with the maneuverability offered by their repulsorlift vanes - allows them to take effective evasive action against enemy ordnance. They also employ flare and smoke launchers to obscure their position against incoming fire.
WEAKNESSES
- Unshielded and Open-Topped: Although protected by duranium armor plating, which can take a significant beating, War Skiffs are otherwise light on defenses. Armor-piercing weapons can rapidly puncture their hulls, and their open-topped design leaves their crews vulnerable to snipers, gas, and other such attacks. If a War Skiff is pinned down and exposed to concentrated fire, it won't last long.
- Transition Time: Although the MetaCannon main gun of each War Skiff can fire in a wide range of modes, each one requires not only different ammunition, but an entirely different barrel for the cannon. Switching from armor-piercing shells to charric maser mode, for example, means partially disassembling the cannon and swapping out parts from storage. The gun cannot be fired during the transition.
- Steering Vanes: War Skiffs are fast and relatively durable, but their armored hulls do have a weak point: their repulsorlift steering vanes. These protruding pieces enable the Skiff's high speed and mobility by directing atmospheric currents and adjusting the craft's weight and heading. Damaging or disabling them can make the Skiff almost impossible to properly steer, causing high-speed crashes.
DESCRIPTION
As the Second Great Hyperspace War raged on, the Brotherhood of the Maw fought repeated battles against the highly-disciplined forces of the New Imperial Order, learning from each clash. The "Mongrel's Howl" artillery, mounted in the backs of highly mobile speeder-technicals, was developed in response to the devastating impact of NIO and Galactic Alliance artillery on Mawite formations in battles such as Csilla, Ilum, Korriban, Jedha, and Nirauan. This finally gave the Brotherhood a long-range response to the enemy big guns, as well as a fast-moving siege vehicle to use against the trenches and fortifications that had proven effective against massed marauder charges.
However, the technicals were largely ineffective against the other hard counter to savage Mawite infantry: the NIO's powerful tank divisions. In battle after battle these tanks had crashed into - and through - Brotherhood ground forces, and heavy weapons teams on foot had largely failed to deal with them effectively. In seeking a way to counter the likes of the NIO's famous Wildcat Battalion, which had repeatedly broken Mawite lines, the Brotherhood turned to captured Chiss weaponry. The Ascendancy had often fielded large self-propelled artillery pieces called MetaCannons, which were useful for their variable payloads. Such cannons could certainly crack tank armor.
And a great many of them fell into Mawite hands as they conquered much of Chiss Space.
However, self-propelled artillery did not fit the Mawite style of war. It was slow, and had to be kept on the back lines, shelling the enemy from afar while protected by troops on the defensive. Scavenger-engineers among the Scar Hounds tribe developed an alternate use for the cannons, one that fit the swift, mobile, and aggressive tactics favored by the Brotherhood: they mounted the weapons on skiffs, turning them into deck cannons. The result was a vehicle with a strong resemblance to the seafaring battleships of many cultures' industrial age, with one big gun looming over the vehicle's foredeck. This would allow their swift deployment and close-range use.
The MetaCannons were almost too big to be used this way, requiring a gunner, a spotter, and two loaders to keep them firing efficiently. Because of the delay between shots, the Scar Hound engineers added a number of smaller deck weapons to the skiffs. Two E-WEB heavy repeating blasters, one on each side, give the craft a way to deal with enemy infantry. Two E-WEB missile launchers, again one on each side, enhance its effectiveness against armored vehicles, though each of them requires a gunner and a loader to keep firing efficiently. The result is a fast-moving, moderately-armored skiff bristling with weapons, capable of hunting tanks or providing heavy support.
The high crew requirements to keep the vehicles flying and shooting, with ten weapon operators plus a pilot and a navigator to adjust the steering vanes, limits the vehicle's passenger capacity... and it has no cargo capacity at all. All of the space within the skiff's shallow hull is taken up by alternate MetaCannon barrels and ammunition, which the crew must swap out in order to switch firing modes. However, the craft is highly modular. If all the guns are removed, it can instead be used as a rapid deployment troop transport, delivering some thirty Mawite warriors to the battle with only two required crew. This use is rarer, though. Mostly, the Maw likes the big guns.
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